Flexible substrate with etched lens array

ABSTRACT

A flexible substrate having a plurality of lenses disposed in an array on a surface of the substrate wherein the lenses are formed by etching the substrate.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a divisional of and claims priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/207,016, filed Aug. 18, 2005.

BACKGROUND

Human engineered imaging optical systems are typically laid out like a‘camera eye’ or vertebrate eye: a single imaging lens and a focal planewhere a fairly high-resolution image is formed. The camera eye demands afairly large volume for the incoming radiation to come to focus in thefocal plane. The behavior and optics of the camera lens is wellunderstood today. In some applications the resolution and thesensitivity is balanced against other advantages such as devicemechanical flexibility, larger depth of focus, and larger field of view.Recent improvements in low cost image sensors allow digital cameras tobe made smaller and designed more flexibly.

Another design is based on concepts of a compound eye, as found in manyinsects. A compound eye sensor has a large number of small, independentfacets with sub-millimeter diameter, each combined with a low cost imagesensor. Compound eye sensors can be divided into apposition andsuperposition compound eyes. In apposition compound eyes, each facet, orlens, directs light onto a single, corresponding light-detectingelement. In superposition compound eyes, multiple facets or lensesdirect light onto a particular light-detecting element. Both eye typescan use refractive or reflective mechanisms for forming images.

Existing approaches for constructing compound eyes can causemisalignment errors of the optical components (i.e., the lenses) withrespect to the electronic components (i.e., the image sensors). Otherproblems, such as aberration and resolution degradation arise from theplanar geometry of existing compound eyes.

SUMMARY

The compound eye design in the described embodiment mimics the compoundeyes found in nature, where optical surfaces and receptors are situatedon curved surfaces. This contrasts with most existing artificialcompound eyes, which have optical surfaces and receptors in a planargeometry that leads to increased lens aberration, optical design andmanufacturing complexity, and performance degradation.

In general, in one aspect, the invention features an image sensor havinga flexible substrate with an array of lenses disposed on one surface ofthe substrate, and an array of organic integrated circuit photodetectorson the other side of the substrate, such that each lens of the lensarray is aligned with a photodetector element in the photodetectorarray. Other embodiments include one or more of the following features.The array of lenses can be formed by etching the substrate. The arraycan be deposited by a wafer-level organic integrated circuit technologyand can involve a continuous roll process. The same tool set can be usedto manufacture both the lens array and the photodetector array, with thelens array and the photodetector array aligned to an accuracy of atleast three microns. The photodetector array can be manufactured usinglow temperature processes, including processes that operate attemperatures of less than about 120° C., such as solution printing. Thesubstrate can be made of a UV-curable polymer, and can be planar orcurved, having, for example, an approximately ellipsoidal shape. Thelens pitch and lens focal length can be constant, or can vary across thelens array, and can be customized to the geometry of the substrate.

In general, in another aspect, the invention features a plurality oflenses disposed in an array on a surface of a flexible substrate, thelenses being formed by etching the substrate. Other embodiments includeone or more of the following features. The lenses can be spaceduniformly or non-uniformly, and can have focal lengths that vary fromone part of the array to another according to the geometry of thesubstrate. The substrate can be made of a UV-curable polymer.

In general, in still another aspect, the invention features a method offabricating an image sensor involving: (1) depositing an array ofphotodetectors on one surface of a flexible substrate, thephotodetectors being deposited using wafer level organic integratedcircuit technology; and (2) forming an array of lenses on the oppositesurface of the substrate. Other embodiments include one or more of thefollowing features. The lens array can be deposited using a continuousroll type manufacturing process. The photodetector array can bedeposited using a solution printing process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a lens array deposited on the surface of arigid substrate.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a flexible lens array.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of a flexible compound eye image sensor

FIG. 4 is an illustration of a planar compound eye image sensor using acluster design.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of a curved compound eye image sensor using acluster design.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Image sensors generally have an optical component and an electroniccomponent. In an image sensor based on an artificial compound eye, theoptical component includes an array of lenses, and the electroniccomponent includes an array of detectors, each of which is aligned withone of the lenses. In typical existing designs, the lens array is placedon one surface of a rigid, light-transmitting substrate, while the arrayof detectors is placed on the opposite surface of the substrate.

A lens array for existing compound eye sensors is commonly fabricated bylithography in a UV curable polymer deposited on a glass substrate. FIG.1 is an illustration 100 of lens array 102, deposited on the surface ofrigid substrate 104. Each individual lens 106 is formed from amulti-step process involving master mold generation and subsequent UVreplication.

In the described embodiments a sensor combines a flexible lens arrayetched directly onto one surface of a flexible substrate, with anorganic electronics-based image-sensor disposed on the opposing surface.The substrate is preferably a UV-curable polymer.

In one embodiment of a sensor, a transparent flexible polymer is used asthe substrate, the polymer having optical properties that are determinedby the particular design of the lenses and image-sensors. The substrateis preferably made of a material suitable for making the lenses, so thatthe lenses are etched directly out of the substrate material, withoutthe need to place a separate layer that includes the lenses on top ofthe substrate. FIG. 2 is an illustration 200 of such a flexible lensarray. Substrate 202 is made of a flexible optical polymer, such as thematerial used for lens array 102. Individual lenses 204 are shapeddirectly from the body of the substrate. Suitable flexible materials areknown, and include various plastic polymers, such as polyimides. Sincethe rigid substrate of previous lens arrays has been replaced by aflexible substrate, the resulting lens array is flexible.

CMOS technology is commonly used for electronic image-sensing componentsof existing compound eye image sensors. CMOS processes use a high puritysilicon substrate, but there can be problems in manufacturing a CMOSsensor on a flexible organic substrate. Silicon-on-isolator technologyis another option that uses sapphire, glass, or silicon substrates. Arecent version of silicon-on-isolator technology is the Separation byImplantation of Oxygen (SIMOX) process. Fabrication techniques forelectronic circuits, including those using CMOS technology, generallyinvolve processes such as diffusion, thermal oxidation, ionimplantation, photolithography, etching, evaporation, sputtering,chemical vapor deposition (CVD or MOCVD) and high temperature (>1000°C.) film growth. These processes effectively prohibit the use offlexible organic substrates because they involve temperatures well abovethe melting point of typical flexible polymers. Moreover, there can be asignificant mismatch between the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE)of plastic polymers, with CTE 20-30 ppm/° C., and silicon, with CTE of4.2 ppm/° C. This means that temperature variations can cause apolymer-based lens array to be misaligned with a silicon-basedimage-sensing array.

Embodiments of the sensors described here use electronic components madeusing organic materials (organic electronics) on a flexible substrate tofabricate the image-sensing component of a compound eye image sensor.FIG. 3 is an illustration 300 of a flexible image sensor, having lensarray 304 formed directly from flexible substrate 302 on a first surfaceof the substrate, and an array of organic photodetectors 306 disposed ona second surface of the substrate. Organic electronics are used to makethin-film transistors (TFTs), photodetectors, and other components. Forexample, the TFT can be pentacene transistors with an 18-micron channellength. Other organic materials, such as poythiophenes or thiopheneoligomers can be used. Each sensor has an effective sensing area ofabout 50×50 square microns.

Organic photodetectors that have been demonstrated on rigid substrateshave sufficiently high photosensitivity, low dark current and largedynamic range to allow demonstrations of large area photodiode arraysand page size image scanners. When employed in one-dimensional linearphotodiode arrays or in two-dimensional active matrices, the sensors candistinguish gray levels with at least 12-bit resolution, which isattractive for high quality imaging applications.

Devices based on organic electronics can be deposited onto a substrateby solution processing, a process that takes place at low temperatures,i.e., below about 120° C. This temperature is much lower than thetemperature involved in non-organic electronic device fabrication. Thismeans that the image sensor can be printed on almost any substrate,including substrates made from flexible organic polymers.

One benefit conferred by the above design, is that both the image sensorand the lens array are manufactured using similar, low temperatureprocesses. A preferred manufacturing process for the photodetectors usessolution-printing techniques. Other processes that can be deployed aspart of organic electronics fabrication are spin-coating, solutioncasting, and evaporation, all of which take place at low enoughtemperatures to accommodate a flexible polymeric substrate.

Since both the lens array and the image sensor circuits are fabricatedusing similar, organic processes, the same tool set can be deployed forboth, conferring a manufacturing cost advantage. Furthermore, accuratealignment between the top and bottom surface is possible because thelens array and the image sensor are well suited to wafer levelmicro-optical fabrication and assembly technologies utilizinglithographic micron level alignment accuracy. Alignment accuracy of afew microns over a 4-inch wafer can be achieved. A double-sided maskaligner or similar equipment could be used. This level of alignmentaccuracy is harder to achieve when two separate processes are deployedto make the optics and the electronics because the different processesrequire different tool sets that need to be aligned with each other.

The lens array is preferably fabricated using a continuous roll typemanufacturing process, in which the array is created on a roll offlexible polymeric substrate. The substrate rolls can be up to a fewmeters wide and 50 km long. In one manufacturing sequence, the imagesensor is first printed onto the flexible substrate in a series of stepsand the lens array deposition then completes the manufacturing process.

A benefit of a flexible compound eye image sensor is the ability todesign sensors with curved image planes. This is advantageous because,unless corrected for, the planar sensor geometries associated with rigidsubstrate compound eye sensors will not maintain the image surface ofeach channel in the same plane, nor maintain the light flux independentof the field angle. Correction for these effects requires the use ofelliptical anamorphic lenses with angle-dependent lens curvature andaperture. Such lenses greatly complicate optical design, and lead tosystem aberrations and resolution degradation. FIG. 4 is an illustration400 of a planar compound eye image sensor that uses a cluster designhaving stacked arrays of lenses in order to correct for the distortionsreferred to above. Object 402 is imaged by three lens arrays 404, 406,408 that comprise elliptical anamorphic lenses 410 that haveangle-dependent optical properties. The lenses vary within each array,with lenses near the periphery, such as lens 410 being more elongatedthan a lens near the center of the array, such as lens 412. Thecorrected, undistorted image 414 is shown on a planar image surface 416.

By contrast, in curved sensor geometry image sensor 500, illustrated inFIG. 5, the lenses within each array 504, 506, 508 each have the sameshape, aperture, and focal length. Within an array, each lens receivesthe same light flux, and can therefore have the same aperture. Thecurved image sensor produces image 510 of object 502 on curved imagesurface 512.

Flexible compound eye image sensors have low resolution applications inproducts such as cameras, cell phones, security cameras, and ultra thincameras. Flexible image sensors also have potential applications in theautomotive industry as rear view sensors, and in applications for use aswide field of view sensors conformally mounted onto an airframe.

Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims. Forexample, a flexible image sensor array is typically about 1-2centimeters square or smaller, but can be as large as 6-10 centimeterssquare with a resolution of 36 to 250 dots per inch. The lenses arepreferably arranged in a square grid at a 50 micron pitch, but the pitchcould be as large as about 1 mm or as low as about 10 microns. A varyinglens pitch and different x and y direction pitches can be used. Thesensors can be used to detect visible light and near infrared. The fieldof view is wide, such as in the range of π to 3π steradians. Whilecertain benefits of described embodiments have been identified above,other embodiments may be within the scope of the claims and not have anyor all of the identified benefits.

1. An apparatus comprising: a flexible substrate having a plurality oflenses in an array on a surface of the flexible substrate wherein thelenses are formed by etching the substrate.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the substrate comprises a UV-curable polymer.
 3. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the lenses are spaced at a uniform pitch.
 4. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the lenses are spaced at a non-uniformpitch.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the array comprises lenseshaving a plurality of focal lengths.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the array of lenses is deposited by a continuous roll process.7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate is planar.
 8. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate is curved.
 9. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein at least one of the lens pitch and lens focal lengthvaries within the lens array.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein atleast one of the lens pitch and lens focal length is customized to ageometry of the substrate.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein thesubstrate surface is ellipsoidal.
 12. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe lens array is a one-dimensional array.
 13. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the lens array is a two-dimensional array.
 14. The apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the lens array has an approximately square shape, andhas a side length greater than about 1 centimeter and less than about 10centimeters.
 15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lenses arearranged at a pitch of less than about 1 mm and greater than about 10microns.
 16. A method comprising: providing a flexible substrate, andetching an array of lenses on the surface of the flexible substrate toform a flexible lens array.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein thearray of lenses are formed in a continuous roll process.
 18. The methodof claim 16, wherein at least one of a lens pitch and a lens focallength varies within the lens array.
 19. The method of claim 16, whereinat least one of a lens pitch and a lens focal length is customized to ageometry of the substrate.
 20. The method of claim 16, wherein thelenses are arranged at a pitch of less than about 1 mm and greater thanabout 10 microns.